Glasgow’s Muslim youths clean the streets on New Year’s Day

Laura Sturrock

On New Year’s day when most people were tucked up warm in bed after celebrating saying goodbye to 2015 and welcoming 2016, young volunteers from the Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Association (AMYA) were up at the crack of dawn to clean the streets in Glasgow.

They picked up litter in the Yorkhill area, Kelvingrove, Argyle Street, Dumbarton Road and Haugh Road after their early morning prayers at their Baitur Rahman Mosque in the west end of Glasgow.

The clean-up is one of a number of initiatives that AMYA set up over the Christmas period.

The group also visited the sick children at the new Children’s Hospital and gave them gifts, collected money for Yorkhill Children’s Charity and distributed food to the homeless and an elderly home in Glasgow. Earlier in the month they also dispatched volunteers to assist with the Cumbria Relief Effort. The youth were also involved with other cleanup activities in Glasgow.

Shoaib Khan, Regional Ahmadi Muslim Youth (AMYA) leader, said: “Our members have enjoyed living in Glasgow for a long time and so any opportunity to help our local community is a much welcomed one. Cleaning any part of the city also presents us with an opportunity to become better Muslims as cleanliness in Islam is an important part of a Muslim’s faith.

“We are a peace loving and well organised association which will continue to help make this great part of Scotland an even better place to live in.”